After careful deliberation, the staff at AoB has decided to focus on one contest only each year. It is our hope that by doing so, we can bring together a larger representation of bonsai from around the world, while continuing to offer a respectable prize list and maintain our high standard of professional judging.

We have taken all of our groundbreaking and record setting contests and incorporated the best ideas from all into one single photo contest format. This new design includes multiple categories, while creating a format where other categories and subdivisions can be easily added to meet the needs of our members and sponsors in the future.

We have also decided to offer additional awards, in cooperation with other bonsai organizations and our sponsors, such the American National Bonsai Exhibition Award, and the ABFF award. These awards are in addition to our primary awards, which are designed to reward and recognize the very best bonsai in the world.

We have eliminated our previous sub-categories dividing professional and non-professional entrants. It is our decision to hold contests that reflect the philosophy of the Art of Bonsai Project, namely that all content here be of the highest caliber.

We sincerely hope that you will help spread the word about this contest and participate yourself.

Good luck to all!

RULES

The contest objective is for bonsai artists from around the world to submit high quality pictures of world-class bonsai, which will be judged and awarded points by highly qualified judges who will be announced before the contest deadline.

The goal of this contest is educational and is meant to inspire friendly competition between artists from all around the world.

Please read all rules before submitting your entry and refer back to them before submitting your photographs in order to prevent misunderstandings or needless disqualification. Most of all, enjoy yourselves and have fun.

Contest is void where prohibited by law.

Note: If you would like to donate your time and translate these rules into a different language, please download this version complete with formatting to do so. Email your translated version to will@artofbonsai.org You will of course receive full credit for the translation.

WHO CAN ENTER

Any person from any country can enter provided they abide by and agree with the rules of the contest.

You need not be a member of The Art of Bonsai Project to enter. This contest, like all of the content on AoB, is free, viewable, and open to all who are interested. Those that wish to participate in discussions on the contest or other topics on the forum will be required to join in order to comment.

Editors and staff of AoB will be allowed to enter, however if they choose to do so, they will be excused from any judging process to assure our long history of unbiased, ethical, and fair contests remains unblemished.

SUBMISSIONS

This contest is for high quality trees, all submissions falling short of this standard will be rejected. Those that are borderline will be decided upon by the staff of AoB on a case-by-case basis.

Participants are allowed to enter up to five separate entries per category.

Entries from the 2007 North American vs Europe Photo Contest that placed in the top thirty as listed here can not be entered in this contest. This rule is to assure a level playing field for all and to assure a diversified contest. After a one-year hiatus, these trees may be entered again.

Participants can submit bonsai that they personally have designed regardless of if the bonsai is currently in their care at the present or in a collection located elsewhere.

Participants may also submit bonsai that they did not design as long as the bonsai is in their care and that the original artist is named. Above all else, this contest is about the trees presented.

Submissions must be made by email to will@artofbonsai.org before midnight June 30, 2008. Entries that are late will be disqualified. Your entry should be posted within 24 hours. If you do not see your submission posted within 24 hours of the time you sent it, contact Will Heath at the email address above.

Upon receipt of submissions, we will post them in the entry threads located here in the order they were received. Entries will be posted in categorized entry threads titled to reflect the category the participant entered under, providing the entry meets the requirement for that category. AoB reserves the right to change categories of submissions based on our sole interpretation of the rules.

Each submission must be accompanied by text as described below. Submissions without the required text will be disqualified. All entries must be accompanied with the following text:

I have read and understood the rules of the contest and agree to abide by them. I have full copyright to all text and/or photographs I am submitting and I grant the Art of Bonsai Project and International Bonsai full permission to use any or all of the text and/or photographs submitted by myself in such manners as described in the rules and in future publications of any type as related to showcasing, promoting, featuring, or publishing the submissions to this contest as approved by the Art of Bonsai Project. I understand that any other usage of the text and/or photographs will require addition permission from myself and that, other than permissions given here, I retain full copyright to submitted materials as described.

All submissions must also include the following:

Full Real Name of entrantName of styling artist if different from entrantCountry entrant currently resides inCommon and botanical species namesHeight of bonsaiPot originCategory or categories entry is entered for.Submission not including any of the above information will be disqualified.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Digital photographs of 3 megapixels or greater will be accepted providing the original image from the camera is available in case of quality concerns. We will also accept scans in the highest resolution and finest quality, with original prints or negatives available if requested. Optimally, submitted images should be 300 dpi and 20.3 cm (8 inches, or 2400 pixels) in width.

Photographs must not be up-sized, must not be over-sharpened or over-filtered. Entries not meeting these standards, put in place for professional print publishing reasons, will be rejected. Photographs must be clear, in focus, and without a distracting background.

Photographs can be submitted in tif, jpg, or png format.

Photographs may be adjusted to alter contrast, lightness and color saturation. Cropping and rotating to level the photographs is also allowed. All other forms of manipulation will be grounds for disqualification.

We must stress that this is a 'photo contest' and as such, the quality of the photograph is of the utmost importance. Due to the possibility of future publishing in magazines, galleries, calendar, or book form, all photographs not of high technical and artistic merit will be rejected, and the entrant will be informed of the reason for rejection. Entrants will be allowed to re-submit any rejected entries with better photographs.

The entrant must have full copyrights to all photographs submitted.

JUDGING

Due to popular demand and a consensus of the staff at AoB, this contest will be blind. By blind we mean that entrants names will be withheld until after the contest is judged.

A Word document will be created containing a table that will contain the names of the entrants as well as a code that will be used in the submission forums to identify the trees. This document will remain hidden from the judges and the public until after the judging is completed at which time the names will be put with the original entries and the Word document will be made available to the public.

Individuals who are well known and respected in the bonsai community will judge this contest. These judges will be announced at a later date.

Each entry will be scored and given points on a scale from 0 to 10 by the judges. The judges may, at their discretion, post comments on each tree they score to elaborate on the reasoning behind their scoring.

In the case of tied scores, the staff at AoB will each score the tied entries and these scores will be added to the scores of the tied entrants. The resulting totals will determine the winner. Any of the staff of AoB that has entered the contest themselves will not be allowed to participate in this tie breaker process.

Once scored, the points of each entry will be tallied and the winners will be posted according to the following guidelines.

AoB AWARDS

AoB Award: Chosen by the AoB Staff for the most artistically innovative entry of all entries from all categories. Any of the staff of AoB that has entered the contest themselves will not be allowed to participate in this judging process. In the event that all or the majority of the AoB staff has entered the contest, the exisiting contest judges will be used or outside judges will be brought in to select the winner of this award.

Grand Prize: The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries from all categories.

Best Conifer. The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries in this category.

Best Broad Leaf Tree (non-conifer). The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries in this category.

Best Shohin Bonsai. The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries in this category. For the purposes of this contest, Shohin Bonsai will be defined as being up to 25.4 cm (10 inches) in height.

Best Bonsai Landscape. The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points of all entries in this category. This category includes plantings which may incorporate stones, non-woody plants, figurines, multi-trunk [forest or group plantings], and other pieces not classified as a single tree or dual trunk.

Best Display. The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries in this category. All display types including Shohin display will be judged under this category.

Best Companion Planting. The winner will be the entry having the highest sum of total points awarded by the judges of all entries in this category.

SPONSOR AWARDS

American National Bonsai Exhibition Award: Chosen by the management of the National Bonsai Exhibition. The winner will automatically qualify for entry into the America's first National Bonsai Exhibition and receive some financial assistance.

ABFF (Asia-Pacific Bonsai Friendship Federation) Award: Chosen by the management of the ABFF. The winner will win a free return air-ticket to Bangkok Thailand for the 2008 ABFF Convention in December 2008. The ticket will be from the country's main airport and not include the domestic flight. This prize can not be transfered to other people or refunded in cash if not used.

We wish to thank the many sponsors who have donated prizes to this contest, please take a moment to pay them a visit or drop them a note of thanks, without these patrons of bonsai, the art would be less, not to mention the contests. For this contest, we have specifically requested that only gift certificates are donated. In this way, we save the sponsors the hassle and expense of shipping for a worldwide contest and assure that the winners receive prizes that they actually can use and appreciate. Exceptions will be made for books.

AoB will be the sole distributor of the prizes and will notify the sponsors of the winners. We ask that the entrants do not contact the sponsors regarding prize distribution; they will only refer you back to us. Those attempting to side-step this process hamper the distribution greatly and will be disqualified.

Prizes will be announced and awarded to the winner of each category. Categories are as follows:

AoB Award

Grand Prize

Best Conifer

Best Broad Leaf Tree (non-conifer)

Best Shohin Bonsai

Best Bonsai Landscape

Best Display

Best Companion Planting

American National Bonsai Exhibition Award

ABFF (Asia-Pacific Bonsai Friendship Federation) Award

PERMISSIONS, COPYRIGHTS, and LEGAL NOTICES

As with all content at the Art of Bonsai project, all copyrights remain with the author or photographer. For this contest, we ask only for permission to use the text and photographs submitted at AoB for the contest threads and other contest related threads as well as for publication by the cosponsor of the contest, International Bonsai Magazine.

We also ask for full permission to be given to International Bonsai to publish the text and photographs submitted in any manner as approved by the Art of Bonsai Project. Any other use will require permission to be granted by the author or photographer.

By entering this contest you agree to the terms of use and give full permission for use of all text and photographs for publication by the Art of Bonsai project and International Bonsai Magazine. By entering this contest, you agree to accept the rules and amended rules for the contest as posted and also agree to accept the decisions of the AoB staff, editors, and judges concerning cases not clearly covered in the rules. By entering this contest, you also agree to accept the decisions of the judges, whatever they may be and release AoB, its staff, editors, and the judges of this contest from any liability or damages regarding or resulting from this contest.

All decisions of the judges are final. Contest void where prohibited by law.

DISQUALIFICATIONS

Entries submitted without the required text and information as described in the rules above will be automatically rejected. An email will be sent to the entrant explaining what was missing and an opportunity to resubmit will be given. Failure to resubmit with the required text and/or information will be cause for disqualification.

Sub-standard photographs will be automatically rejected. An email will be sent to the entrant explaining what was wrong and an opportunity to resubmit will be given. Failure to resubmit with quality photographs will be cause for disqualification.

This contest is for high quality trees, all submissions falling short of this standard will be rejected. Those that are borderline will be decided upon by the editors of AoB on a case-by-case basis.

Good luck, and have fun!

Contest and Rules by Will HeathCopyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Last edited by Will Heath on Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Emre Durdar gave of his valuable time and translated the rules of this contest into Turkish for the project. Even though he is a beginner in the art, he realized the value of this contest and announced it to his friends on a Turkish Bonsai forum which is called 'Avrasya Bonsai -Eurasia Bonsai-'( http://www.avrasyabonsai.com/ )

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